BlizzCon took place in Anaheim over the weekend, and Cosplay Py won first place in the costume contest. The costume is Grand Empress Shek'zeer from World of Warcraft, which Py and her husband had worked on for two years (it even lights up!). It was to be unveiled at Blizzcon. Py and her costume did just fine for the judging Friday, but when the winners were ascending the stage to show the crowd, Py injured her ankle and had to be carried off. She tells us what happened:
On the way out of the judging room, i caught the toe of my boot in the carpet and went down. In the process, i snapped the pvc skeleton in one of the legs. This was just from the angle I fell and the force of my weight on the joint. Blizzard staff was amazing and gave us plenty of time to work out a fix. By contest time, she was 100% back up and running.
What happened at the contest is pretty much 100% separate. There were two ramps. We had practiced on some steepish ramps and had a plan of action. The first ramp was difficult, but we managed. Unfortunately, the second ramp was much more steep. When I did manage to hit the top, the weight of my thorax and bag legs (still on the slope of the ramp) literally pulled me off of my stilts. In the process I injured my ankle. At this point, there was absolutely no way for me to walk on in the costume. So, my husband and the most fabulous stage hand in the world got my costume off of me while I went into a full on meltdown.
Cosplay Py was not able to parade her costume around BlizzCon, but photographer Morten Skovgaard did a photo shoot the next day to preserve the costume at the event. The Flickr album of the shoot shows how elaborate the costume is. -via Polygon
(Image credit: Cosplay Py)